Sugar browned? That might possibly be the thing I miss most about my ex. His mum - Bedstemor - always made loads and loads of sugar-browned spuds for our Christmas meal with her (which wasn't always at Christmas) so that there'd be leftovers for the next day too, 'specially for me. Absolute God food.

I remember walking my bike through there once, and on the East side I met another cyclist coming through, walking his bike as I was. We moved next to the wall to keep the path clear, as we had a chat, and someone walking through decided to stop and inform us, at length, that there was no cycling allowed in the subway and that all cyclists are cnuts.

My daughter and granddaughter do their meal. They are into beef wellington. Bloody expensive but they love it and it does 3 meals.

I think turkeys are over-rated. I quite fancy swan but I haven't seen one for sale. I might just have to nip down the park in the dead of night. There are six full-sized cygnets there begging to get white feathers. I reckon they would be pretty tasty. I doubt that our oven is big enough though.

I suppose these days the US keepers of the flame mean that availability isn't that much of a problem (albeit at a price...). Interesting what LWaB says about old randonneurs switching to carbon bling; while sympathetic towards a lot of JH's claims, I've always had the sense that he and his mates are strong enough to be fast whatever they're riding.

my exposure to French randonneur type machines prior to ~1990 was limited to two examples.

The first was a random encounter with a French chap, in the depths of the French countryside. We stopped to say bonjour and had a chat about things; he had a traditional French machine with 650B wheels and very light-built tyres, about 38mm wide. I asked him how they went and he reckoned they rolled easier than 700C wheels with skinnier tyres. I was sceptical; we were riding on 27x1-1/8" tyres and 700x 28mm, with a load on, that sort of thing. I chatted with my chums about what he'd said in the miles afterwards and the conclusion was that it was hard to swallow, but it just might be true under certain conditions, e.g. on bumpy roads.

Also we concluded that it didn't really matter if it was true or not, we were not just about to buy machines that accepted 584mm rims, and anyway such tyres and rims were not to be had in the UK. I at that time owned a French-built tandem with 650B wheels and it was a king-sized PITA to get parts for it. In the end for the tandem I gave up and used Michelin zig-zag 26x1-1/2" (38-584) tyres, that were meant for carrier bikes and post-office bikes, and I lived in fear of pranging one of the specially drilled Super Champion rims...

Later I happened upon a Gilles Berthoud custom built touring bike, parked up in my home town. I spent about half an hour just looking at it, hoping that the owner would reappear and tell me all about it. It had 650B wheels, a steep head angle, braze-on mafac CP brakes, and custom built carriers, that slung the panniers about 4" lower than normal. I could see that it was beautifully built, but I wasn't in a rush to get anything similar myself, being both unconvinced by the concept and deeply sceptical about spare parts availability.

The last two points still apply, I suppose. I might consider fatter tyres for use on mixed surfaces, or if I had to use a stupidly stiff frame for some reason (disc brakes...?), but (for various reasons) I'd gravitate towards 700C wheels if I could fit them to the bike sensibly. 26" (584) wheels are that bit lighter than 700C ones with the same width tyres, but arguably you are splitting hairs; the rims and tyres are about 6% smaller and lighter. Unseen differences (in steering geometry, tube gauges, etc) make more difference (much more difference) than that.

I've just seen the helmet promotion article. I was shocked. I don't mind riders wearing helmets if they chose to but find the idea of one group being given a platform to advocate censorship of other riders who don't fit their view of how the world should be extremely distasteful.

Not so much distasteful as just wrong. However that was the authors view and not to allow him to express it is itself wrong... Arrivee is for all AUK members not just those one happens to agree with. As is, it seems we can look forward to a bumper 'Editor's postbag next edition.

Yes, the editor will choose which letters to published and we can expect some from both camp. I'd expect they will be supported with some commentry on the nature of responses (pro and anti-compulsion) overall.